The King's Corrodian Read Online Free PDF Page A

crisp and shrivelled, and a spur of calcined bone stood out like a handle.
    ‘Good dog,’ Alys said shakily. ‘Clever dog.’ Socrates gave her a considering glance, then grinned, his teeth white in the flickering light.
    ‘It’s his shoe, all right,’ said Dickon. ‘Seen ’em often enough. But where’s the rest o him? If he’s been carried away wi the Deil right enough, why leave his foot ahint?’
    ‘I think this heap of ashes must be him,’ said Gil. Then: ‘Bear up, sweetheart. Do you want to go outside? Aye, he’s here, I’m afraid.’
    The two lay brothers crossed themselves simultaneously, staring. Alys stepped back, away from the grey tumble of cinders, and reached for her beads.
    ‘Christ on a handcart,’ said Brother Dickon reverently.
    ‘But what,’ Dod swallowed, ‘here, I’ve seen folk that was burned to death. It’s no, it’s no a bonnie sight, but there’s a corp to be seen, no a heap o— a heap o ash like a bonfire. How come he’s burned to a cinder and the house still standing round him?’
    ‘That,’ said Gil grimly, ‘is what I mean to find out.’

Chapter Two
    ‘But how could it happen, mem?’ demanded Jennet.
    All the servants were agog, hanging on every word of the narrative which their master and mistress provided over the stewed kale and stockfish in pepper sauce.
    The meal had appeared almost as soon as they emerged from the corrodian’s lodging, but that was some time after their unpleasant discovery. Brother Dickon, recovering his self-assurance, had sent his junior for ‘a wee brush, a couple shovels, a fair linen cloth out the sacristy and a good stout box’. When Brother Dod returned, the two lay brothers had set about lifting the heap of crumbling, flaking fragments with care, meantime muttering the
Ave Maria
interspersed with curt instructions. Gil looked anxiously at Alys, but she had retired to the doorway where the dog was leaning heavily against her knee, so he hunkered down to join the two men at their charitable task. It was he who found the several lumps of metal buried in the pile, small twisted things which glinted brassily when he rubbed the black deposit off, and a larger knot of dark iron.
    ‘Well, well,’ said Brother Dickon, cautiously sitting back on his heels, peering over his shoulder at the objects. ‘Belt-findings, likely. And could yon be the missing key, d’ye think, maister?’
    ‘I’d forgotten about that.’ Gil turned the misshapen object. ‘It’s the right weight, certainly. But what a heat the fire must ha been, to melt iron like that.’
    ‘Aye.’ Dickon tipped another shovel-full of fragments into the box, and reached across the patch of ashes to lift another small object. ‘How about this? A finger, maybe?’
    Gil drew the candles closer.
    ‘Aye,’ he agreed, ‘or from the other foot. Is there more of it?’
    ‘Canny see any.’ Dickon set the fine bone in the box beside the shoe with its gruesome content, and turned back to coax more crumbling scraps from the same area onto the shovel. ‘No, I see no more, though there’s a few teeth here. Brother Dod, easy wi that brush, I’ve no wish to swally Leonard Pollock’s mortal remains.’
    ‘Will we need to tell Faither Prior?’ Dod wondered. ‘And ring the passing-bell?’
    ‘A course we need to tell him, daftheid!’ said Dickon. ‘The bell can wait, mind you, it’s waited long enough a’ready, no to mention the proper prayers. But what exercises my mind,’ he said to Gil, ‘is where this is to lie till we get word to the Prior.’ Gil raised his eyebrows. ‘See, if it was the Deil indeed struck the man wi fire, then it’s hardly fit for him to lie in the kirk. Faither Prior’s the one to decide on that.’
    ‘You could leave him here meantime,’ said Alys, from the doorway. ‘There are lights already, after all. Maybe the outer chamber would be better.’
    ‘A good thought, mistress. And we’ll ha two o the lads to watch,’ said Brother Dickon,